Leo'Jet Ski Fuel'nardoThis week saw the re-issuing of one of my favourite TMNT concepts, that kind of simultanious oddball -and- white bread that only TMNT can do: the Super Turtles.
You could be forgiven for thinking the Super Turtles began life as a proposed action figure line back in the brand's golden '90s age, but as with most things TMNT it was simply Eastman and Laird drawing in their sketch pads.
In case you were wondering:
Graviturtle=Leo
Shellectro=Donnie
Bloboid=Mikey
Griddex=Raph
Graviturtle=Leo
Shellectro=Donnie
Bloboid=Mikey
Griddex=Raph
In this case it was Peter Laird, then sole holder of the media rights and dusting off the concept for use in the fourth* volume of the original Mirage comic.
(*technically/canonically third, but the now discounted Image series had already been legally registered as Volume 3. TMNT is fascinating at all levels like that. Image will come up again in a bit)
The Super Turtles also eventually got their due in the 2K3 show, (though with no toys, as far as I know) in the 3rd season's 19th episode "Reality Check", written by eventual Marvel cartoon head honcho Chris Yost. The first of a five part multiverse storyline, Mikey finds himself warped to an alternate universe by the Ultimate-Draco, winding up in the Super Turtle's world.
Super-Raph: You're not supposed to be here!
Regular-Mikey: (sniffles) I know...
Regular-Mikey: (sniffles) I know...
I've cooled on this version of the Turtles a lot since I were a lad, but I still think it was at it's best when it was either adapting odd duck Mirage issues or doing off the cuff ideas like this.
Oh, right, I've now put myself in the akward position of having to explain the Ultimate-Drako to normal people. He/they/it(?) was a fused version of villians the Ultimate Ninja and Drako, both from the Battle Nexus arc. The whole multiverse plot is kind of a coda to that storyline.
The show -tries- to do some stuff with the Ultimate Ninja? He's sort of a dark mirror of Leo, a privileged warrior prince trying to surpass his father, and it's his love for the old fella that winds up breaking the bond holding him and Drako (Splinter's rival!) together, but honestly I've had pieces of unbuttered toast that had more going on than either of them
TMNT, as the Super Turtles demonstrate, needs a run up via being wonderfully silly before it can try tackling weightier subjects, like family, loss, child explotation, and who thought the Ninja Rap was a good idea.
Back from dinner (pizza, fittingly enough!), on with the trivia no one asked for. The Super Turtles would finally get an origin story in the second volume of the Tales anthology series, #47 July 2008, six years after their debut in TMNT vol 4 #7.
Here is the condescending and wrong age warning the Ninja Turtle fan wiki places on both those stories.
A) I've met the person who came up with these and he's exactly as much of an asshole as you'd think,
B) As with practically every use of this stupid passive aggressive "No babies in MY tree house" banner, there is precious little if -anything- in these stories that is too much or beyond a child.
A) I've met the person who came up with these and he's exactly as much of an asshole as you'd think,
B) As with practically every use of this stupid passive aggressive "No babies in MY tree house" banner, there is precious little if -anything- in these stories that is too much or beyond a child.
"You're a LONG WAY from Nicktoons, the network famous for debuting Ren & Stimpy, with the Turtles show that repeatedly references Carpenter and Cronenberg, then references the hell/earth torture time distortion from Dante's Inferno in the episode where they bring Shredder back from the dead in his own withered corpse after three whole seasons showing his normal human burned face." Jesus.
He will tell you the tone is supposed to be ironic. He will also do things like link you to TV Tropes as if that makes his point for him and describe his ability to suspend disbelief as "fickle".
I know I'm overselling this, but I really, really need you to understand how incredibly stupid this is applied to TMNT at all, never mind something as knowingly ironic as the Super Turtles.
The frontispiece for this particular Tale of the TMNT, art by regular Tales Vol 2 fp artist Michael Dooney. Pretty sure if this is referencing anything it's Jack Kirby's "This Man, This Monster" cover, but anyone who can clock if it's something else is free to chime in.
I love the frontispieces, these weird mini-stories via implication. As far as I know no other comic did things quite like that except maybe horror anthologies like the House of Secrets and the House of Mystery. Mirage has always been incongruous and I think that's what keeps TMNT in the public consciousness as much any actual quality. It's an idea deprived from everything that doesn't feel like anything else.
And yet something like one of Eastman and Laird's primary influences being Kirby, a creator who truly wasn't like anything else even when he was part of the mainstream, explains a lot.
In that vein, the Super Turtles' origin is simultaneously straight forward with a big emotional twist: the boys are created by a one world government formed to combat an alien invasion that's taking a suspiciously long time to happen...
...because it's all a conspiracy by their creator, mad genius cyborg Dr. Shreddarius and their fanatical mentor Sliver to impose a fascist regime on the world, with our heroes in the half shell as enforcers!
And make no mistake, the Super Turtles are a very surface level premise but it's interesting that arguably the most hokey TMNT concept is the one where they're the least innocent, raised by an unambiguously abusive parent.
Sliver's also not -that- interesting but he does accomplish what he was created to do, add some emotional weight to the premise he was created for. He's equally neat to think about given the current Ujigami storyline in Gene Luen Yang's current run, which you should absolutely check out.